Lauren

Awesome! I'll give it a try this weekend and let you guys know how they do. Thanks!

I bought a rock with 8 or 9 mushrooms not long ago. They are doing well and look great! However there's 8 or 9 of them all crammed onto one rock, it looks kind of goofy. I'm wanting to know if there is a way I can take the mushrooms off of this rock and spread them around a little. I know I've read about how to re-attach mushrooms, but I'm not sure how/if I can de-attach them. Any advice would be appreciated Lauren

In addition to the 2 outputs from the sump, I have 2 powerheads for flow. I'm not sure what else to say about the setup. I don't know the brand or model of any of the equipment (the guy we bought it from said it was "the Roles Royce of skimmers") There are two boxes in the corners that take the water down to the sump. The sump is divided into 2 sections, the first has some live rock and the second has the skimmer and UV sterilizer (which we don't actually have turned on as it needs a new bulb) and the intake for the sump pump. We want to put in a true refugium with lights and stuff but it's going to require a lot of plumbing... we're not ready to tackle that project yet. Since I made this post, we have gotten 2 Ocellaris Clowns and 1 Yellow Tang. We got a clam, some mushrooms, and a few other softies that I can't remember the names for. We added these 1 or 2 things at a time over 3 or 4 weeks.

My softies used to do that too. I fixed the problem by replacing a few bulbs that had gotten old. If your bulbs are fine you might need more light or a different kind of bulb. What a guy at River City Aquatics told me was that the corals will elongate their stalks to get closer to the light. If it's just a few that are doing this you can also move them closer to the surface.

Thanks for the help! We did get it up and running again last night. It has a "thermal protector" so that if it overheats it won't turn on. We let it sit for a while and just left it on, after a minute or two it started up again. Next time we have to turn it off for a water change or whatever I think I will take it apart to see if it needs to be cleaned or anything like that. Thanks again!!

I had to turn my sump pump off for a water change and now it won't turn back on. It is usually a little tricky to get it back on, but it's always come on after turning it on and off a few times. Anyone experienced this before? Any sugestions? Thanks Lauren

I second that sentiment! I drive all the way from Pflugerville to visit RCA. Everyone is always very helpful and knowledgeable. Love that place!

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Thanks all for the advice! I was think about some clowns (Sad to say, but I'm a big Nemo fan) so I'll probably start there.

One other thing I forgot to add, we don't have any metal halides, only 10k's and actinic's. I know that will limit us on corals, but we're not ready to buy the fixtures to get the metal halides yet.

My husband and I have recently inherited an established marine tank. We bought a house and the tank was the last thing they were moving out. We asked if they were willing to sell, and next thing we know we have a 150g tank. We have had freshwater aquariums before (and plan on setting them up again now that we have plenty of space) but are new to reefkeeping. I think the tank is doing fine, the nitrates, phospates, and salinity are all a tiny bit high but we are doing some water changes to get all that balanced. Once we get everything settled I'd like to start adding some corals and fish a few at a time. There are 2 corals and 2 fish right now. We have a Lunar Ras (which we are trying to get out of the tank but he's not cooperating ) and a Lawnmower Blennie. I think one of the corals is an Elegance Coral. The other is probably not a coral at all, but some other sort of invertebrate (I'm going to attach a picture, the first is on the right side the other is towards the bottom closer to the middle). After all that, here's my question. I'm wanting to get some recomendations on fish and corals that are good for a beginer. Something hardy and easy to care for while we are learning the ropes of keeping a marine tank. A side note on the picture, it's taken using a method called HDR. I don't remember what the acronym stands for now, but it's the only picture I have of the tank. The camera takes 5 pictures at different exposures and then a piece of software mushes them all together so everything in the frame is properly exposed. It came out a little wierd on the fish tank...